


A certain slant of mischief

by meek-bookworm (readertorider)



Category: Rigel Black Series - murkybluematter
Genre: Gen, Inspired by The Rigel Black Chronicles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:21:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23971507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readertorider/pseuds/meek-bookworm
Summary: Eleni was never quite sure if the gods meant to reward or punish her in giving her Leo as a son, but he has certainly kept her life interesting.
Relationships: Eleni Hurst & Leo Hurst
Comments: 17
Kudos: 77
Collections: Rigel Black Chronicles Appreciation, Rigel Black Exchange Round 1





	A certain slant of mischief

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aoi588](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aoi588/gifts).



Eleni could feel the excitement building throughout the day. Growing up in the alleys, you learned the nervous chatter that proceeded an Auror raid or the particular stillness that existed just before an eruption of violence. This, her patients joking between different groups, not whispering, but not overly loud, people moving through the square, briskly, but upright, little Cora doing a cartwheel in front of the clinic, this was excitement. 

It didn’t take long to suss out that her boy was neck deep in whatever it was. The way people would duck their head at her, all “yes, healer”, “no, healer”, trying to fit all of their energy back within the confines of their skin, was just as bad as if Leo himself was standing there, looking sheepish, trying to avoid explaining just what happened to all the bones in his left arm.

She hoped he hadn’t decided to climb McMulley’s fence again. While a fifty foot wall coated with grease spells and barbed wire and the occasional explosion rune was perhaps a tad excessive, the man was as entitled to his privacy as anyone else. Regardless she probably should stop by Solom’s to pick up some pasties as an apology gift. It wasn’t McMulley’s fault that teenage boys saw everything as a dare first and foremost.

Perhaps if they had raised Leo in their Falmouth neighborhood he would have developed more of Malcolm’s bookish nature. There was a time when Leo was barely toddling where their home had been their complete base of operations with Malcolm’s lab in the basement and Rispah coming over to mind Leo. But then Malcolm hit on a new line of research he couldn’t explore from home, and Rispah became old enough to find better paying work elsewhere, and to top it off the new Rogue had cut clinic funding, losing her an assistant healer and increasing her own hours at the same time. 

So she had brought Leo to the clinic with her. Luckily he had never been prone to sickness and enough people took a liking to him to bring him back when he escaped. With Hogwarts’ doors shut to all but the select few, she was able to trade favors and healing for bits of teaching, both practical and esoteric.

And so her son had grown up knowing how to use a knife, learning to climb before he could run, listening closely to his own magical gift to figure out the difference between the trustworthy and the desperate before they got within arm’s reach.

It wasn’t fair that her boy was denied Hogwarts, that he had grown up with a knife down his shirt and a lie on his lips, but life in the alleys had always been more about creative adaption than fairness. And frankly Leo had been luckier than many of the other children.

Such as Bina Gleeson, squirming on the table in front of her, injured in a fall while casing a second story window. It was the work of a moment to reset and knit her bones, but Eleni always took her time healing the various bruises and abrasions the young ones collected. You never knew when Aurors might come by and take evidence of injury as evidence of guilt, or at least enough maltreatment to place them in a Ministry wardship. It also gave the children time to talk if they wanted.

Bina did so want. “So you know with the—” The girl cut herself off, darting her eyes up to Eleni’s face and then back down again. “—the _thing_ , I figured Riccardo at least would be out, and I know I’m not supposed to steal from the Rogue, but all I was doing was taking a look really, and tithes have to go somewhere. But then there was this _massive_ crup, teeth bigger than my hand—” She held her hand out for emphasis. “—all snarling-like and I fell. Do you think he’ll remember me?” 

Eleni handed her one of the apples she kept in a bowl by the door. “If there was a window and wards between the two of you, I’d expect not. Canines have a very strong sense of smell and he’ll probably remember that more than anything he sees.”

Bina seemed satisfied with that and munched her apple in contemplative silence for a bit while Eleni fixed up the bruising on her shoulders. But as Eleni moved down her right arm, Bina started speaking again in different, more thoughtful tone, “If you had to choose between something that’s _good_ , even if it meant lying to everyone all the time and keeping truthful, but not helping, what would you do?”

If Leo had been twisting her head around to keep whatever nonsense he was up to this time quiet, she’d lock him in the werewolf containment room with all his neglected textbooks, that’s what she’d do.

Still Bina deserved an answer. Didn’t matter just now what caused her to ask the question. “I’d think hard about whether this good thing is actually good or something somebody wants me to think is good, or just something I _want_ to be good. And then I’d think about how long the lies would last. No matter how deep you bury them, lies tend to grow and keep growing.” 

Bina spat a seed out onto her palm. “But lies don’t grow around you. You can always tell.”

“Just because I can tell if you’re telling the truth, doesn’t mean I know what the truth is. For every truth there’s millions and millions of lies out there.”

Another seed joined its fellow. “But you know they’re lying. And if they’re lying they must be hiding something.”

“That’s smart. Do you know how Leo tried to get around that when he was your age?” 

Bina shook her head. 

“He lied about everything. The weather, his favorite food, his friends’ names, how many legs a quintaped has. For eight months he wouldn’t answer any ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions and I don’t think he told a single truth.”

“Did it work?”

Eleni moved over to Bina’s left arm. “A little bit. I couldn’t use my gift to find out if he was lying or not, but because I knew he would lie, I watched his actions closely and would always check with someone else. Maintaining a lie in a way that no one finds out about it is often more work than arranging things so the truth gives you what you want.”

Bina hummed around her final mouthful of apple, picking the stem out from between her teeth. “He’s gotten better though right?”

That was the perfect moment for a wink and a motherly, “ _He_ certainly thinks so”, Bina giggling in response.

Just before Eleni finished touching up the scab on her cheek, however, the girl tossed her palmful of seeds and the remaining apple stem in the bin before darting away, a “Thanks Healer Eleni!” wafting through the air behind her.

Eleni sighed and began the tidying up. There were quite a few children who would run off as soon as their healing was completed. Eleni was never quite sure if they feared an eventual presentation of a bill, or if they didn’t want to be seen needing healing, or even if they just couldn’t sit still without the motivation of either food or serious pain. She suspected Bina was one of the latter—it made her a truly terrible house-thief, but at least she was marginally safer on the rooftops than in the streets. 

The waiting area was empty except for Aled when she came out. He had been sitting in one of the mismatched chairs, but he unfolded himself and joined her where she had stopped to adjust the allergy suppression charms on Carol’s vase of flitterblooms and late spring daffodils. 

In contrast to the barely suppressed excitement that was even now audible in the square outside, Aled was still and serious. “May I speak with you for a moment? Privately?”

Eleni led him back to the room Bina had recently vacated. Aled, for all he had lived here for over a decade now, was not of the alleys in the same way as most of the people here. He had grown up in a world where parents and their heirs were expected to act as a unit, and when it came to some things, serious things, people tended to return to their roots. She expected she would shortly learn what ‘the _thing_ ’ Bina had mentioned was. 

Aled shut the door and watched her carefully for a moment. He likely wanted to appear calm, but his hands curled up, fingers reaching back towards his shirt cuffs in a nervous habit that would’ve been hidden by robes. The alleys had a way of stripping away pretense. “Leo is challenging Riccardo for Rogue at second bell today.” 

Her body knew to remain standing, her hands reaching out to pour a cup of water and wrapping her fingers around it. The surface of the water was still, calm. Her hands were not shaking. But Aled had not lied. 

To the best of his knowledge, Leo would be fighting to the death in two hours. Without magic, for he was still very much underage.

“He has a plan, Eleni.” Aled was meeting her eyes, begging her to listen, to understand. “The challenge request happened last night in front of all Riccardo’s drinking buddies, so he couldn’t back out when Leo chose a location warded against apparition. And Solom said the whole group was drinking hard before and after the request. He believes Leo has a good chance of victory.”

“And if he wins, what then?” She could feel the bite in her words, but didn’t try to rein it back. “He’ll have painted a target on his back, and anyone who thinks they can defeat a fifteen year old boy, still under the trace, has all the Rogue’s coffers as enticement.”

Aled stepped closer, his face lit with suppressed enthusiasm. “Once he wins, he’ll have proven himself enough that no one will fuss if we set up the wards to prevent underage magic from getting to the Ministry. The coffers are near empty enough as it is and the floo repairs will take the last of it. Won’t be any money worth killing for until the next tithe, more than enough time for Leo to get his feet under him.”

She set the water down, unsipped, but her hands failed her at the counter and water slopped over the sides. Just a little, but enough. 

Aled was closer now, his hand reaching up as if to touch her shoulder before reconsidering and falling away. “This isn’t just a lark, Eleni.”

“We’ve had sixteen Rogues in the last thirteen years. Of those, eleven died either in the challenge or shortly afterwards as the next Rogue consolidated power. Three of the remaining have disappeared, perhaps under their own power, perhaps not, and nothing can tempt Rasperion out of his bottle.” She shook her head. “It’s not just not a lark, Aled, it’s something that will consume his life one way or another.” 

He frowned at that, an acknowledgment, but not a reconsideration. ”Leo chose this, Eleni. He can’t remember the alleys from before, but Rispah does. He thinks that’s worth fighting for.”

Eleni closed her eyes and swallowed back her uncharitable thoughts regarding Rispah and her idealism and rosy-tinted girlhood memories. For Hammish had been a good Rogue. He had pushed the alleys’ dangers to the fringes, brokered the arrangement with the vampires, provided funding and safety to the clinic when it was taking its first unsteady steps, seen that those who wanted to could go to Hogwarts or apprentice-ships elsewhere. 

The outside world had been better then too, but try as she and Malcolm might, they hadn’t been able to change that. Leo was certainly _capable_ enough at potions or charms to win an apprenticeship if he had wished, but if he belonged anywhere in the outside world it was probably the Auror corps. If they could contain Lord Black—however briefly—she gave them at least even odds at coping with her son. But even if current Ministry policy didn’t require applicants to be purebloods, it didn’t take much sleuthing to notice all new trainees under Whitling had a pedigree just as satisfactory as their Hogwarts records.

Aled was speaking again, seemingly not noticing her woolgathering, “… save you a place, of course. It’s an open air location, space enough for anyone who wants to watch, and should cut down on the use of poison while allowing everyone to get a good look at what he’s capable of.”

“No.” The bell rang, but was quickly silenced, producing one further tone that indicated Janice had taken this patient. “If he wants to be taken seriously I can’t be there.” 

The bell rang again as Aled started to protest, something about disguises and body doubles and elaborate code phrases (in no place under this sun would she let Rispah pretend to be a healer under her watch), but she brushed past him. 

She needed to think, but a patient would give her something to focus on long enough for her emotions to settle, to give her that bit of perspective and distance necessary to remember that her troubles had their place in the grand scheme of things.

-

When baby Mac’s cold was treated, her young mother soothed (and McCreedy sent fleeing after a steely inquiry into whether he wanted treatment for the sexual proclivities he had been describing at length to the other patients), Eleni retreated to the backroom to take inventory and brew and think. 

She forced herself through the potions stockpile, checking that each listing in the log corresponded to a vial and that each vial was properly labeled, properly sealed, and within its recommended use date. A good portion of their supply came from teaching programs, and there were always a few where the color was slightly off or the potion was corked, but not sealed with wax. 

Even after going through all the new donations from the end of term exams, filing them away in the various drawers and cubbies, and setting the more questionable ones aside for Malcolm to look at later, it was still a half hour before the second bell when Eleni finished. 

Their stores of burn relief had been nearly exhausted in the last fire toad disaster, so Eleni set two cauldrons of goat’s milk out to simmer and began shredding the Aqaqia bark.

The Rogue’s people would be doing their sweep through the chosen location right about now, checking for rune traps or embedded jinxes or suspended weights rigged to collapse. Leo would know to keep a clean floor. If he was serious about this, and he had always followed through before when he put his mind to something, this first duel would need to be a show of strength.

Politically it was a good time for a challenge. The power and coffers of the Rogue had waned over the last decade under the transient leadership of the last thirteen that had held the office, and Riccardo only maintained power through a combination of the brutality with which he defeated his last challenger, and by being so ineffectual that he stepped on no toes. 

Or rather no toes that had the dueling ability to depose him. There was plenty of suffering because tithes weren’t going where they should, and if another crisis wracked the alleys—the ministry deciding to take an interest, a third vampire coven wanting to move in, even just an unusually harsh winter—they would splinter apart under Riccardo’s inept leadership.

By acting now, when the coffers were near empty, when people had started to disregard the Rogue, the challenger would have time to consolidate power and repair some of the damage before the tithes were collected and he was challenged in turn. With the new tithes would come time to prepare for winter, to shore up the alleys’ flimsy support networks, to batten down those elements which might attract the Ministry’s attention.

Eleni finished with the bark and began chopping the chamomile and lavender into uniform pieces. She approved of the timing, even approved of the plan, of Solom, and Aled, and Rispah who would council right from wrong and balance each other in their own way. But she dearly wished her son had not chosen to place himself as the challenger. 

Oh, she had no doubt of Leo defeating Riccardo. The first time Carol half-carried her son back to her when the “he gave as good as he got” was a truth and not a mindless platitude, she had investigated a bit, concerned Leo had been scraping with boys his own age for once. But, as no less that three people stopped by the clinic to warn her, the other party had been two of Segar’s enforcers. 

“Sorry, Ma,” Leo had said, when Solom marched him back over a couple of hours later. “I didn’t realize they were Segar’s people.”

Eleni crossed her arms. “Well, would you have done anything differently if you had known?”

“No.”

Solom huffed a laugh, and Leo had turned on him. “They were hassling Rebecca, what else was I supposed to do?” 

“You don’t have the brains the Goddess gave a skunk. Think boy, who would Segar hesitate before attacking?”

“The Owlers.”

“Ya want a turf war? Think, who doesn’t Segar want taking an interest in his operation?”

Leo’s voice had been thoughtful. “The covens, but even Segar’s people aren’t daft enough to believe one of their folk is out in daylight… “ 

Solom made an encouraging noise, and she waited.

“The Gryfalcons aren’t big enough, the Nightcrawlers wouldn’t be any better than the Owlers, the smuggling groups wouldn’t care, Burke and the other fences wouldn’t care either, unless they attracted the Ministry’s—” Leo’s eyes lit up. “The _Aurors_. No one would think I’m an Auror, but if I made them think a raid was imminent, or even just attracted enough attention…”

Solom clapped him on the shoulder. “Let me introduce you to some people, teach you a bit more about finding creative solutions and reckoning affiliations. Now you had something to say to your Ma?”

“Sorry Ma.” Leo ducked his head. “I shoulda found a way to make them stop, without leading them back to you or Da.”

She gathered him into her arms. “Oh honey, even Segar has enough sense not to pick a fight with a healer, and your Pa probably wouldn’t even notice a blip in the wards if they tried to get to him at the Guild. But I do want you to go out and warn Carol and the other healers, just in case. And be careful.”

“Thanks Ma.” He hugged her back, then released her and thanked Solom and scampered off towards the front of the clinic.

“Don’t thank me just yet, boy, you got a lot of work to do in the next few weeks,” Solom called after him, but Eleni could hear the note of indulgence in his voice.

“I’ll keep him out of sight for a few weeks, give this time to die down,” Solom said once the door was closed and the anti-eavesdropping wards raised. “He made Segar look bloody foolish right now, mite that he is, but once talk turns to something else, Segar won’t want folk dredging things back up again and Leo will be as safe as usual.”

Eleni thanked him and waited. He wouldn’t have closed the door just for that.

“Leo’s _good_ , Eleni.I didn’t see this fight, but spoke with some who did, and seen other scrapes besides. All those groups he mentioned? Them and more will start to take an interest if he doesn’t start keeping his head down.”

“Leo’s never been particular good at keeping his head down.” That had always been true and she wasn’t going to scold him for it. “But he likes secrets just as much as the next boy.” She grinned. “And it is more _challenging_ after all to win without showing all you’re capable of. I think I can explain things so he’ll make things look more difficult than he finds them.”

Solom huffed another one of his laughs. “And here I thought your husband was the politician.”

“Oh, I have no patience with people with more galleons than kindness, but I do know my son, and if he has two sickles to rub together, I’ll eat those curtains.” Wouldn’t be too much of a loss, she was tired of fishing small children down from them as soon as her back was turned.

Solom’s smile didn’t reach his eyes this time. “He’ll get hurt more this way,” he warned. “It’s hard enough winning a fight without making it look like it’s nearly lost at the same time too.”

Eleni sobered. “I know. But I couldn’t keep him cooped up even if I wanted to. His magic’s looking out for him, I have to trust it to keep him safe.”

Solom nodded, and Eleni took the opportunity to broach an idea, “If you did know someone or several someones who would be willing to teach Leo more about how to fight, Malcolm and I had a bit of gold set aside for Hogwarts. Certainly won’t be needed if he’s not attending and some formal training wouldn’t hurt.”

“No, an’ it might help a bit at that.” Solom glanced over at where the sigil above the door was glowing red, the anti-eavesdropping ward’s way of indicating that someone was in fact trying to eavesdrop. “That must be your lad now. He can come back to the Dragon with me, earn some of those favors I’m going to spend on him scrubbing pots, less you need him here.”

Eleni shook her head and pressed a kiss to where Solom’s beard met the smooth skin of his cheek.

“You’re a kind lass.” Solom winked at her and cracked the door handle to break the anti-eavesdropping ward. “An’ I’ll ask around ‘bout that thing you requested, there’s a fair few folk who might be interested for a galleon or two.” 

She had turned back to her paperwork as Leo pestered Solom about the mysterious request all the way back to the clinic’s entrance and likely beyond. 

In retrospect, the path to Leo challenging for Rogue seemed blindingly clear, but at the time all she had thought about was supporting her son in every way possible. The last dueling tutor had reported excellent progress, but he had moved on a couple of years ago, and Leo had become apt enough at Solom’s “creative solutions” that she hadn’t even heard rumors of him fighting in longer.

Not that the rumor mill about her son had ever been suspiciously quiet. His magical aura was over pretty much every sort of mischief imaginable: trinkets of people he thought were rude had a way of ending up on the Pendragon statue; grass and a herd of multicolored goats had mysteriously appeared on the roofs of the Brookstreet apartments the same week Bina had cried about not having a pet; the Owlers and the Nightcrawlers had declared an eight month truce to eliminate the Pride, a group that by all later accounts didn’t exist and never had existed. 

Misdirection, all! She had noticed the lies, but she had attributed them to easy mischief when he likely still had been seeking out tutors who wouldn’t work on a mother’s commission. And, of course, making a quiet name for himself within the Court. While technically anyone could challenge, those who did without a base of support were frequently laughed away. 

She pushed the small heaps of chopped lavender and chamomile aside for now, and reached under the shelf to pull out a small silver cauldron. It didn’t matter what lies had been told, or dangers glossed over, Leo had chosen his path. 

The second bell began its chiming a moment later, but Eleni ignored it. The rest of the alleys might have forgotten a small boy emerging victorious over Segar’s enforcers, but she had not. Riccardo was an ineffectual king and a weak duelist. Beating him would be no challenge for Leo.

But she and Malcolm had always wished for happiness for their son. And the ultimate irony of the alleys had always been the more you cared, the harder you tried, the more you hurt.

-

Rispah arrived just after the third bell, throwing open the storeroom door and entering in a swirl of skirts to pose dramatically by the cutting table. At Eleni’s pointed look, she moved her hand off the dragon’s breath and deflated bit into an actual person instead of the painting of Nimue Solom had in one of his backrooms.

“I over did it a bit there, didn’t I?”

Eleni had always been certain of the outcome of the duel, but hearing the joy bubbling just under the surface of Rispah’s voice settled something inside her. The fight for Rogue would not be called off by a Ministry raid or postponed by one of Riccardo’s machinations. It was done. Leo was king. “The pose was good, but you needed a bit more of an audience, I think. People don’t mind a bit of acting if they can tell themselves it’s for someone else’s benefit.”

Rispah hummed thoughtfully and picked her way back to where Eleni was watching over the second cauldron of burn relief, fingers trailing over the racks of bottles on the walls. Eleni checked the consistency of the potion and lowered the flame. This conversation would likely take a good while, and a longer simmer wouldn’t hurt. 

When she straightened, Rispah met her eyes over the cauldron. “He’s asked me to be Queen. I think I’ll accept.”

That wasn’t unexpected. Rispah was less experienced and magically talented than some, but she was dynamic and clever and cared. And, of course, unlike the other ladies more deeply entwined with the previous Courts, Leo would know he could trust her. “Do you want the position?”

“More than anything.” The enthusiasm and hope was bubbling back up in Rispah’s voice. “We can have _beds_ , Aunt Eleni. Beds and hot meals for all who need them. And a Code that’s working, so nothing like what happened to Missy can happen again. 

“You should hear Aled talk. All numbers and inflows and outflows, but his numbers are solid enough, and he reckons there’ll be enough to start a proper orphanage and maybe even get some loans started up—Trickster knows the Goblins hate loaning to anyone without the proper collateral. An’ sorting out the ladies will be so much easier if them who aren’t suited for it can borrow a bit of gold and apprentice for a few years somewhere else.”

Rispah paused and Eleni waited. Rispah wouldn’t be here if there weren’t a “but” lurking somewhere at the back of her mind, and well, Eleni herself could remember standing with Malcolm in front of the building that would become the clinic, the deed in hand, and so many dreams and hopes spiraling out in front of her. It was pleasant to have that memory stirring again after so many years, to see that passion reflected in a new set of eyes.

“It’s just—” Rispah broke off eye contact. A light pink mist had begun to coalesce over the silver surface of the potion, but Eleni doubted that had attracted her attention. Then Rispah met her eyes again, steady and resolved. “I can’t help thinking someone else might do a better job of it. Someone like you, Aunt Eleni.”

Eleni laughed, and didn’t try to stop it. Some arguments were well made with words and nuance and fine points, but others were made with emotion and deeper truths. She wanted Rispah to have no doubt, no remembered words that could be twisted into unlikely shapes in the early hours of the morning. “I’m flattered you think so dear, but I’d be like a kneazle who stepped in the lard tub, flailing around over everything, grumpier and grumpier with each passing moment.”

Rispah had her eyebrows arched delicately. “I very much doubt that.”

The rueful smile was inevitable. “You didn’t see me when Malcolm and I were getting the clinic first established. I swear Malcolm had to step on my foot at least once an hour to keep me from shouting at someone I shouldn’t. Drove the both of us to distraction until this place was finally built and I could just focus on healing people.”

Eleni paused a moment to pull her thoughts into some sort of order. “Rispah, you care deeply for these alleys, and Goddess knows that’s not enough on its own, but you are practical and clever and artful besides. If you’re not suited after all, Leo can find a new Queen, but you’ve a talent for people and he trusts you. Seems to me that’s plenty to be going on with.”

Rispah ducked her head to hide her blush, and Eleni felt a small thrill of pleasure that her niece still cared for her opinion. 

The tempus charm chimed and Eleni bustled over to raise the heat under the silver cauldron and add the chopped ginger. As the cauldron temperature increased, the room began to smell pleasantly of mulberries.

Rispah had followed her, eyes sharper now. “You’re upset about something though. You don’t mind the idea of me being Queen, and you have your own passion for the alleys, you can’t begrudge anyone that. No, it’s Leo, isn’t it? Anyone of us, if we want to step away, we can do it, but he can’t.”

Eleni stirred five times clockwise, dropping in a billywig after every stir. “He’s fifteen years old. And Mother help the wizard, witch, or creature that thinks they can beat him in a fair fight, but the alleys are not his responsibility.”

Rispah laid a hand on her shoulder. “He gets to choose though. And was what you chose so different?”

 _Yes_ , Eleni wanted to say. _I chose healing to help people, and the hours were long and the study was difficult, but I was still surrounded by friends my own age, no one was counting on me_. But she felt the prickle of her magic’s irritation deep in her core. 

Nobody had been counting on her except her friends and neighbors back home who couldn’t afford the few minutes of a healer’s time required to heal a bone or the potions it would take to treat doxy lung. Even if they hadn’t known they were counting on her at the time, if they had expected her to get out and live the sort of life they could see splashed across the _Prophet_ ’s society pages, she had known she could make a difference.

Eleni turned into Rispah’s ready embrace. This choice wasn’t fair, for her or Rispah or Leo any of the others, but life in the alleys had never been about fairness. 

-

It was sunset when Leo appeared, the oranges and reds of the sky outside reflected in his face and eyes. 

Eleni had been finishing up her last notes, dictoquill scribbling away on the table behind her, watching the sky through the window, when she felt a presence in the doorway. 

“Ma,” Leo said. And she turned. And he was whole and he was hers, and in three steps he was gathered into her arms, and she could feel his heart beating where she had her forehead pressed against his shoulder. 

“Leo.” There were so many things she wanted to say, so many questions, so many reassurances. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

His hands tightened around her back. “I didn’t want to make you keep secrets from Da.” His voice was softer as he continued, “But mainly I knew you could talk me out of it. And I had to do this, Ma.”

One last squeeze and she released him, taking a couple steps back so she could look him straight in the eye. “It hurt to find out from Aled.”

“I was going to tell you everything tonight. Aled kept arguing that he wanted a healer in the stands, guess he finally took matters into his own hands.” The shadow of a grin. “He’s careful, my Armorer.”

“Patient too, to put up with the lot of you.” She ran her hand down his right arm, feeling the slight warmth of nascent bruises, and brought her wand to bear. “Rispah stopped by as well. You made a good choice with her.” 

“I reckon I did make a pretty good choice when the gods were handing out families. A cousin that can charm the birds out of trees, a Pa with a job that gives me a perfect excuse for all sorts of errands, paternal grandparents that have the very good sense to be dead. Shame about my Ma though. Think if I kept looking I could’ve found a titled blueblood? Maybe someone who likes embroidery and doesn’t pay too much attention to what her son is up to?”

She poked him in the arm where the bruising seemed the deepest. He grinned at her and didn’t flinch, and she returned to healing. “Reconsidering after it’s too late might be a fault of yours.”

Leo settled. “It will be hard. I know that. I knew that. There will be meetings and paperwork, playing pretty with people I hate and stern with people I want to trust. People that know will treat me different, people that don’t can never learn. But someone has to do it.”

Eleni ran a hand down over the newly healed skin, her mind flashing back to her conversation with Bina, just this morning and yet so long ago. “Your Pa is one of those that can’t learn. He swore an oath to report any subversive activity to the Ministry when he was appointed Aldermaster.”

She felt the muscles twitch under her hand. That had shocked him. A remnant of the old tension between the Ministry and some of its more powerful and international factions that mostly didn’t matter anymore. “Ma, I’m sorry. I never meant to make you choose.”

“Leo, your Pa and I both love you. There will be difficult times ahead, when he doesn’t understand how you are spending your time and planning your future, when you won’t be able to come up with an excuse for missing something important outside because of your duties inside the alleys. This isn’t what we wanted for you.”

Leo’s face wiped itself clean, settling into the cast of stubbornness he usually wore when being lectured for something he had no intention of changing.

Eleni reached over to grab the potions vial containing the final contents of that small silver cauldron and pressed it into his hand. “But I know I can speak for both of us, when I say how proud we are of you.”

The stony expression melted away and she watched Leo blink down at the vial for a few moments. His voice was nearly steady when he finally spoke, “Ma, what is this?”

“An old invention of your Pa’s that completely neutralizes any alcohol it comes into contact with. It’s expensive and a bit finicky to brew, but unless things have changed considerably since my day, you have a party to go to and people to convince that you can hold your liquor.”

Leo grinned crookedly at her and the vial disappeared up his sleeve. “Pretty sure it’s still your day. You could come if you like.”

“No, I rather think knowing my teenage son will be out of the house makes this a perfect time for a date night. Use the window if you don’t end up staying with Solom.”

Leo looked appropriately traumatized, although she suspected a good portion of that was an act for her benefit. “I’ll stay with Solom. Or Aled. Or Rispah. Or even the clock tower might be an option with some rope and a bit of ingenuity, but I will not be home before noon tomorrow unless something explodes. Goodnight, Ma.” 

She didn’t have to stretch too far to press her lips to his forehead, but he was growing still. “Goodnight, Rogue”

Eleni watched from clinic door until he disappeared into the gathering twilight.


End file.
